This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
A shoe sorter is a type of sorter conveying system composed of a conveyor which moves in a conveying direction along a conveying route. Mounted on the conveyor are pusher shoes which are movable relative to the conveyor in a direction transversely relative to the conveying direction. Each shoe is coupled to a guide pin or wheel which can engage features of a guide track mounted beneath the conveying surface managing the lateral position of the shoe relative to the conveyor surface. The guide rail arrangement includes switches which can divert or facilitate the travel direction of the guide pin or wheel from the conveying direction to a direction oriented transversely relative to the conveying direction. In that fashion, the shoes can push items transversely from the conveyor and onto a chute at appropriate destination sites along the conveying route. Examples of such sorter conveying systems include U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,347 issued to Brouwer et al on Apr. 19, 1988, U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,715 issued to Sapp on Aug. 2, 1994, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,591 issued to Heit et al. on Mar. 25, 1997, which are each incorporated herein by reference.
Damage to a switch can occur as a result of shoe guide pin or wheel impacting against the switch. Typically, however, the switch is comprised of a large, single part main body. When the damage occurs to this large, single part main body, then the entire main body must be replaced. This can result in substantial unnecessary material waste and costs. It is also typical that the switch is mounted in position using conventional clearance fit apertures through which bolts are fastened. This can be desirable in order to allow some adjustment of the switch when it is positioned to minimize any misalignments. Unfortunately, this can make it necessary for the installer replacing any damaged switch or component to need to finely tune the position of the replacement switch or component, which requires time and skill that ultimately reduces efficiency and increases costs and downtime.